Debate over banning short-distance flights takes off, but the cons outweigh the pros
Where to find Spain's most spectacular autumn colours
25/10/2020
AUTUMN often seems like that boring bit of the year between summer and Christmas, with only three saving graces – the extra hour's sleep, that it still isn't really that cold, and that it has plenty of bank holidays.
If this is how you feel, you probably need some colour in your life.
Natural, oxygen-giving colour.
Like trees.
Yes, really: Did you think deep reds, pale golds and flaming oranges were a northern European concept? Had you always believed Spain was just cacti and palm trees?
Actually, pines are far more common than either, oaks and maples are bursting with shades of fire all over the Mediterranean, and north of the capital, you can find entire traffic-light beech forests with more in-between shades than a paint chart.
Spain has no shortage of autumn leaves, even if you live in a densely-populated town or a big city, because most of these have a park or several (Madrid, too; you can get lost in the 'rural wilderness' of the Retiro; Valencia's Turia riverbed, the green 'moat' around the metropolis, is one of Europe's largest urban gardens). You don't have to go to one of the National Parks, major nature reserves, mountain ranges or UNESCO forests to find the splendour of the autumnal palette.
But why not? There are enough of them, after all. Too many to describe here, so we've singled out a small handful to whet your appetite for a post-Hallowe'en getaway.
Just when you thought you knew what Spain looked like, its landscape throws up yet more unexpected delights – here are 15 of them which will make you fall in love with autumn again.
Asturias
Spread across three mountains and 55 square kilometres, the Muniellos nature reserve (first photo, from Pinterest) is home to Spain's largest and one of Europe's best-preserved oak forests – you'll find it between Cangas de Narcea and Ibias.
Only 20 visitors are allowed in per day, as it's also a protected bird sanctuary, so you have to book in advance – but once there you'll see why it's been the backdrop for Asturian mythology and legends for centuries.
Lagoons, rivers, and even the remains of glaciers from the ice age stretch out before you.
Huesca province (Aragón)
Europe's highest limestone-rock mountain range, the Monte Perdido massif in the Ordesa y Monte Perdido National Park, near Jaca at the foot of the Pyrénées, is already famous for its beer, and for its shape which looks like the love-child of the Grand Canyon and South Africa's Table Mountain. Pine trees dominate higher up, although for autumn colours, deciduous trees including oak, beech and ash cluster in the lower-lying areas. Wide-open spaces and natural cascades abound, all towered over by the great castle-like rocky summit.
At the southern end of the Monte Perdido, the terrifying Añisclo Canyon plunges down hundreds of metres – an abyss of no return with a gushing river at the bottom and an explosion of forest for miles either side, above and below, evergreens mingling with deciduous: Silver birch, beech, fir, lime, oak, juniper and maple.
Navarra and the Basque Country
From above, it looks more like a scene you'd stumble across whilst scuba-diving, but the Irati forest in Navarra is very much above ground; this picture (right) of what appears to be multi-coloured broccoli, by the regional tourism board, shows part of this dense and beautiful woodland which stretches all the way to the Atlantic Pyrénées in south-western France.
The largest sylvan mass in Navarra, one of the best-preserved natural clusters of beech and fir in Europe, and the second-biggest on the continent after Germany's Black Forest, the Irati is also a 'working' woodland: It's been a source of raw material since around the 16th century, and wood-cutters and sawmills are part of the furniture. But sustainable practices mean there's no risk of deforestation.
Within it, tree-tops form 'ceilings' to create enclosed spaces with a thick, leafy carpet along most of the Irati trail – one that captivated US novelist Ernest Hemingway on his many pilgrimages to Spain, and which he captures in his novel The Sun Also Rises, with characters Jake and Bill fishing in the Irati river and comparing the pastoral peace favourably with the debauchery of the urban life they left behind in Paris.
Mossy woodlands of mature beeches interspersed by pasture means Navarra's Urbasa-Andía nature reserve is largely grassy year round and colourful in autumn, with gushing, crystaline waterfalls, off-road cycle paths, caves intricately adorned with a mass of stalactites, rocky mountains and rolling, emerald hills – and plenty of holiday-park accommodation and organised trips to make sure you get the best out of your stay.
Dramatic mountains, covered woodlands and pastureland make up the Gorbeia nature reserve on the border between the provinces of Vizcaya and Álava – the largest area of outstanding natural beauty in the Basque Country. The Gujuli waterfall, over 100 metres high, open grassland and oak and beech woods, and trails for cycling, hiking and equitation – all within sight of a 1,482-metre mountain – make the Gorbeia a much-loved rural getaway year round, although its most spectacular colours in autumn make now the best season of all to visit.
The evergreen landscape of the Aralar mountain range, straddling the frontier between both regions acquires a rainbow hue in autumn when the beech trees scattered among it begin to turn, and you can still catch sight of grazing sheep – farmed there for their milk – for at least another month, and even the occasional herd of wild horses.
Castilla y León
The Faedo de Ciñera, or Ciñera beech wood (third picture, from Flickr), between Villar del Puerto and Ciñera de Gordón in the province of León, is actually very small, but won Best Woodland in Spain Award in 2008 thanks to its excellent conservation and unspoilt nature; in fact, one of its trees, named by locals as Fagus after the Latin name for beech, is believed to be at least 800 years old.
To protect its delicate topsoil, local residents built a wooden walkway to serve as a footpath – and before setting off along it, you can stop and regroup in the idyllic little picnic-table area on the banks of a stream at the entrance.
One of the world's southernmost beech forests – they're a northern European phenomenon, which is why you won't see them on the Mediterranean – is in the province of Segovia, whose capital city, of the same name, is home to the famous, gigantic Roman aqueduct. In the Pedrosa beech wood, which sits between 1,500 and 1,700 metres above sea-level just outside the town of Riofrío de Riaza, you'll also find oak trees, and its best visiting season is autumn and the early part of winter, where you might even catch a frosty scene for your social media site if you get there in the early morning. High enough up you can see the shadows of clouds on the hills and on the river valley below, at this time of year, the woodland panorama looks like the full pH scale from ultra-alkaline to pure acid all at once. From the highest point of the La Quesera mountain, you get the impression of seeing the whole of inland Spain unfold at your feet – somewhere, hundreds of kilometres across the horizon, is the sea, with nothing obscuring it but mere distance.
Fuente means 'fountain' or 'spring' in Spanish, but the Fuentes Carrionas massif in the province of Palencia is known as such because of its shape, since the rock appears to be flowing, like water. Its highest peak is the Peña Prieta, at 2,538 metres above sea level, and it straddles the Castilla y León-Cantabria border, but the vast majority of it is in the former. Open grassland and a circle of what used to be glaciers house the almost-perfectly round Fuentes Carrionas Lagoon within the Curavacas peak, and ground-oak, carob, oak and beech give it colour in autumn, with pines scattered in between to retain a year-round emergence of green.
Extremadura
In Spain's land-locked west, the Ambroz Valley (picture four, by Valle Ambroz on Instagram) is in fact an entire county, awash with rivers, lakes and gorges and home to eight small towns – its capital, Hervás, only has 4,102 residents.
Mountains of over 2,000 metres in height, enclosed woodlands of chestnut and horse-chestnut trees that turn yellow-gold in October through to late November – most of which are between 500 and 700 years old - natural 'swimming pools' for taking a dip in the heat of the summer (the one at Casas del Monte is the best-known and best-equipped, and the Abadía one in the river Ambroz is the largest), ancient villages with wood-beamed houses bordered by chattering streams, and the locally-famous waterfall, La Chorrera, are all just part of the scenery for those lucky enough to live there permanently, as are the Roman 'city' of Cáparra, Granadilla castle – with its view over the vast Gabriel y Galán lake – and the village of Granadilla itself, with its moss-covered remains of a Mediaeval Islamic settlement, so well-preserved as to resemble a miniature ground-level Machu Picchu.
All this can be found in the province of Cáceres; also, Extremadura is home to the world-famous Roman amphitheatre complex at Mérida, which numerous Spaniards have travelled hundreds of kilometres across the country to see at least once in their lives.
Catalunya
Lively, colourful, crazy, chic, cultured, kitsch, and everything else a European capital city should be – even though it's not a capital, but Spain's second city – Barcelona is either on everyone's travel wish-list, or they've already been. But it's hard to believe that within the same province, you'll find the autumnal beauty of the Montseny mountain range, coated in pines, fir and beech and engulfing 18 villages. Streams, rivers, dramatic cliffs, rocky peaks, Mediterranean and central-European woodlands, and typical mountain and forest wild animals (foxes, deer, hare, wild boar) seem almost impossible just a short-ish drive from the bright lights of the Ramblas and the elegant shop-fronts of the Passeig de Gràcia. Guided hikes take place year-round, especially in autumn, to help you get the best out of this enormous country haven, safely and within your comfort zone.
Farther north and inland, the province of Lleida borders the Pyrénées and is the only one of Catalunya's four without a coast – and, nestled within it, the Arán Valley has its own 'regional' language and has half-heartedly considered becoming a separate territory altogether with its own autonomous government.
It's also very orange, yellow, red and gold in autumn, peppered with green, and very Alpine-looking – especially with the winter snows. In fact, it's home to one of Spain's most popular ski resorts, the Baqueira Beret. Its largest town, Vielha (about 5,560 residents) is also home to the tunnel of the same name which cuts through the mountains into France. Rural and tree-covered, the valley, known officially in catalán as the Vall d'Aran and in Occitan as the Val d'Aran, is multi-coloured in autumn, silvery-white in winter, and an array of greens in spring, with spectacular views guaranteed given its high-altitude location.
Castilla-La Mancha
The vast central plains stretch from just-south and just-north-east of Madrid to within an hour or so of the southern and south-eastern coasts; unless you live in Extremadura or the north, you'll have crossed Castilla-La Mancha if you've ever travelled to Spain's capital by road or rail.
But even though they're referred to as 'plains', they're not 100% flat and do have plenty of mountains – Spain is, after all, the most mountainous country in Europe after Switzerland.
Among these is the Sierra del Segura (fifth picture, from iStock), which covers part of the province of Albacete, to the west of that of Alicante, and spills into Murcia and Jaén – three provinces and three regions.
Liberally coated with oak, maple, pine and the curiously-name 'strawberry tree' (Arbutus Unedo), so-named because of its red (inedible, though) berries, an array of colours is guaranteed in autumn, although pines dominate higher up, giving it a dark-green tinge most of the year.
Abrupt canyons, dizzying peaks shrouded in cloud, turquoise lakes, and dry-stone 'steps' or platforms carved into the slopes (like the rice steps of south-east Asia, but with grass and trees instead of water) make the Segura range a site of dramatic beauty; with entire towns locked into mountain faces, it's even possible to have it as your back garden.
One of (but not quite the) most southerly beech woods in Europe is in the province of Guadalajara, north-east of Madrid and ever-so-slightly more south than Segovia, which it borders – another province that lays claim to being approximately on the outer limits of where you'll find forests of this type of tree on the continent. Teak, fir, oak and pine can also be found in the lush, raw Tejera Negra nature reserve, where summers are mild bordering on cool, and winters are harsh with up to two or three months of snow.
Close to the town of Cantalojas and in the heart of the Ayllón massif, with shallow, rocky streams, mossy roots and a carpet of leaves, abysses that give you vertigo to behold, and a blanket of white between about Christmas and February, the Tejera Negra nature reserve is a Mecca for walkers – those seeking an easy-ish stroll through wooded, mountainous landscape, and very fit, experienced hikers are all catered for – with organised, guided excursions programmed most of the year.
As it's a protected reserve, you have to book a ticket to enter, but this means the area is very geared up to visitors and you'll find accommodation within convenient reach and scheduled trips on offer to ensure you don't miss out on any of its highlights.
Related Topics
AUTUMN often seems like that boring bit of the year between summer and Christmas, with only three saving graces – the extra hour's sleep, that it still isn't really that cold, and that it has plenty of bank holidays.
If this is how you feel, you probably need some colour in your life.
Natural, oxygen-giving colour.
Like trees.
Yes, really: Did you think deep reds, pale golds and flaming oranges were a northern European concept? Had you always believed Spain was just cacti and palm trees?
Actually, pines are far more common than either, oaks and maples are bursting with shades of fire all over the Mediterranean, and north of the capital, you can find entire traffic-light beech forests with more in-between shades than a paint chart.
Spain has no shortage of autumn leaves, even if you live in a densely-populated town or a big city, because most of these have a park or several (Madrid, too; you can get lost in the 'rural wilderness' of the Retiro; Valencia's Turia riverbed, the green 'moat' around the metropolis, is one of Europe's largest urban gardens). You don't have to go to one of the National Parks, major nature reserves, mountain ranges or UNESCO forests to find the splendour of the autumnal palette.
But why not? There are enough of them, after all. Too many to describe here, so we've singled out a small handful to whet your appetite for a post-Hallowe'en getaway.
Just when you thought you knew what Spain looked like, its landscape throws up yet more unexpected delights – here are 15 of them which will make you fall in love with autumn again.
Asturias
Spread across three mountains and 55 square kilometres, the Muniellos nature reserve (first photo, from Pinterest) is home to Spain's largest and one of Europe's best-preserved oak forests – you'll find it between Cangas de Narcea and Ibias.
Only 20 visitors are allowed in per day, as it's also a protected bird sanctuary, so you have to book in advance – but once there you'll see why it's been the backdrop for Asturian mythology and legends for centuries.
Lagoons, rivers, and even the remains of glaciers from the ice age stretch out before you.
Huesca province (Aragón)
Europe's highest limestone-rock mountain range, the Monte Perdido massif in the Ordesa y Monte Perdido National Park, near Jaca at the foot of the Pyrénées, is already famous for its beer, and for its shape which looks like the love-child of the Grand Canyon and South Africa's Table Mountain. Pine trees dominate higher up, although for autumn colours, deciduous trees including oak, beech and ash cluster in the lower-lying areas. Wide-open spaces and natural cascades abound, all towered over by the great castle-like rocky summit.
At the southern end of the Monte Perdido, the terrifying Añisclo Canyon plunges down hundreds of metres – an abyss of no return with a gushing river at the bottom and an explosion of forest for miles either side, above and below, evergreens mingling with deciduous: Silver birch, beech, fir, lime, oak, juniper and maple.
Navarra and the Basque Country
From above, it looks more like a scene you'd stumble across whilst scuba-diving, but the Irati forest in Navarra is very much above ground; this picture (right) of what appears to be multi-coloured broccoli, by the regional tourism board, shows part of this dense and beautiful woodland which stretches all the way to the Atlantic Pyrénées in south-western France.
The largest sylvan mass in Navarra, one of the best-preserved natural clusters of beech and fir in Europe, and the second-biggest on the continent after Germany's Black Forest, the Irati is also a 'working' woodland: It's been a source of raw material since around the 16th century, and wood-cutters and sawmills are part of the furniture. But sustainable practices mean there's no risk of deforestation.
Within it, tree-tops form 'ceilings' to create enclosed spaces with a thick, leafy carpet along most of the Irati trail – one that captivated US novelist Ernest Hemingway on his many pilgrimages to Spain, and which he captures in his novel The Sun Also Rises, with characters Jake and Bill fishing in the Irati river and comparing the pastoral peace favourably with the debauchery of the urban life they left behind in Paris.
Mossy woodlands of mature beeches interspersed by pasture means Navarra's Urbasa-Andía nature reserve is largely grassy year round and colourful in autumn, with gushing, crystaline waterfalls, off-road cycle paths, caves intricately adorned with a mass of stalactites, rocky mountains and rolling, emerald hills – and plenty of holiday-park accommodation and organised trips to make sure you get the best out of your stay.
Dramatic mountains, covered woodlands and pastureland make up the Gorbeia nature reserve on the border between the provinces of Vizcaya and Álava – the largest area of outstanding natural beauty in the Basque Country. The Gujuli waterfall, over 100 metres high, open grassland and oak and beech woods, and trails for cycling, hiking and equitation – all within sight of a 1,482-metre mountain – make the Gorbeia a much-loved rural getaway year round, although its most spectacular colours in autumn make now the best season of all to visit.
The evergreen landscape of the Aralar mountain range, straddling the frontier between both regions acquires a rainbow hue in autumn when the beech trees scattered among it begin to turn, and you can still catch sight of grazing sheep – farmed there for their milk – for at least another month, and even the occasional herd of wild horses.
Castilla y León
The Faedo de Ciñera, or Ciñera beech wood (third picture, from Flickr), between Villar del Puerto and Ciñera de Gordón in the province of León, is actually very small, but won Best Woodland in Spain Award in 2008 thanks to its excellent conservation and unspoilt nature; in fact, one of its trees, named by locals as Fagus after the Latin name for beech, is believed to be at least 800 years old.
To protect its delicate topsoil, local residents built a wooden walkway to serve as a footpath – and before setting off along it, you can stop and regroup in the idyllic little picnic-table area on the banks of a stream at the entrance.
One of the world's southernmost beech forests – they're a northern European phenomenon, which is why you won't see them on the Mediterranean – is in the province of Segovia, whose capital city, of the same name, is home to the famous, gigantic Roman aqueduct. In the Pedrosa beech wood, which sits between 1,500 and 1,700 metres above sea-level just outside the town of Riofrío de Riaza, you'll also find oak trees, and its best visiting season is autumn and the early part of winter, where you might even catch a frosty scene for your social media site if you get there in the early morning. High enough up you can see the shadows of clouds on the hills and on the river valley below, at this time of year, the woodland panorama looks like the full pH scale from ultra-alkaline to pure acid all at once. From the highest point of the La Quesera mountain, you get the impression of seeing the whole of inland Spain unfold at your feet – somewhere, hundreds of kilometres across the horizon, is the sea, with nothing obscuring it but mere distance.
Fuente means 'fountain' or 'spring' in Spanish, but the Fuentes Carrionas massif in the province of Palencia is known as such because of its shape, since the rock appears to be flowing, like water. Its highest peak is the Peña Prieta, at 2,538 metres above sea level, and it straddles the Castilla y León-Cantabria border, but the vast majority of it is in the former. Open grassland and a circle of what used to be glaciers house the almost-perfectly round Fuentes Carrionas Lagoon within the Curavacas peak, and ground-oak, carob, oak and beech give it colour in autumn, with pines scattered in between to retain a year-round emergence of green.
Extremadura
In Spain's land-locked west, the Ambroz Valley (picture four, by Valle Ambroz on Instagram) is in fact an entire county, awash with rivers, lakes and gorges and home to eight small towns – its capital, Hervás, only has 4,102 residents.
Mountains of over 2,000 metres in height, enclosed woodlands of chestnut and horse-chestnut trees that turn yellow-gold in October through to late November – most of which are between 500 and 700 years old - natural 'swimming pools' for taking a dip in the heat of the summer (the one at Casas del Monte is the best-known and best-equipped, and the Abadía one in the river Ambroz is the largest), ancient villages with wood-beamed houses bordered by chattering streams, and the locally-famous waterfall, La Chorrera, are all just part of the scenery for those lucky enough to live there permanently, as are the Roman 'city' of Cáparra, Granadilla castle – with its view over the vast Gabriel y Galán lake – and the village of Granadilla itself, with its moss-covered remains of a Mediaeval Islamic settlement, so well-preserved as to resemble a miniature ground-level Machu Picchu.
All this can be found in the province of Cáceres; also, Extremadura is home to the world-famous Roman amphitheatre complex at Mérida, which numerous Spaniards have travelled hundreds of kilometres across the country to see at least once in their lives.
Catalunya
Lively, colourful, crazy, chic, cultured, kitsch, and everything else a European capital city should be – even though it's not a capital, but Spain's second city – Barcelona is either on everyone's travel wish-list, or they've already been. But it's hard to believe that within the same province, you'll find the autumnal beauty of the Montseny mountain range, coated in pines, fir and beech and engulfing 18 villages. Streams, rivers, dramatic cliffs, rocky peaks, Mediterranean and central-European woodlands, and typical mountain and forest wild animals (foxes, deer, hare, wild boar) seem almost impossible just a short-ish drive from the bright lights of the Ramblas and the elegant shop-fronts of the Passeig de Gràcia. Guided hikes take place year-round, especially in autumn, to help you get the best out of this enormous country haven, safely and within your comfort zone.
Farther north and inland, the province of Lleida borders the Pyrénées and is the only one of Catalunya's four without a coast – and, nestled within it, the Arán Valley has its own 'regional' language and has half-heartedly considered becoming a separate territory altogether with its own autonomous government.
It's also very orange, yellow, red and gold in autumn, peppered with green, and very Alpine-looking – especially with the winter snows. In fact, it's home to one of Spain's most popular ski resorts, the Baqueira Beret. Its largest town, Vielha (about 5,560 residents) is also home to the tunnel of the same name which cuts through the mountains into France. Rural and tree-covered, the valley, known officially in catalán as the Vall d'Aran and in Occitan as the Val d'Aran, is multi-coloured in autumn, silvery-white in winter, and an array of greens in spring, with spectacular views guaranteed given its high-altitude location.
Castilla-La Mancha
The vast central plains stretch from just-south and just-north-east of Madrid to within an hour or so of the southern and south-eastern coasts; unless you live in Extremadura or the north, you'll have crossed Castilla-La Mancha if you've ever travelled to Spain's capital by road or rail.
But even though they're referred to as 'plains', they're not 100% flat and do have plenty of mountains – Spain is, after all, the most mountainous country in Europe after Switzerland.
Among these is the Sierra del Segura (fifth picture, from iStock), which covers part of the province of Albacete, to the west of that of Alicante, and spills into Murcia and Jaén – three provinces and three regions.
Liberally coated with oak, maple, pine and the curiously-name 'strawberry tree' (Arbutus Unedo), so-named because of its red (inedible, though) berries, an array of colours is guaranteed in autumn, although pines dominate higher up, giving it a dark-green tinge most of the year.
Abrupt canyons, dizzying peaks shrouded in cloud, turquoise lakes, and dry-stone 'steps' or platforms carved into the slopes (like the rice steps of south-east Asia, but with grass and trees instead of water) make the Segura range a site of dramatic beauty; with entire towns locked into mountain faces, it's even possible to have it as your back garden.
One of (but not quite the) most southerly beech woods in Europe is in the province of Guadalajara, north-east of Madrid and ever-so-slightly more south than Segovia, which it borders – another province that lays claim to being approximately on the outer limits of where you'll find forests of this type of tree on the continent. Teak, fir, oak and pine can also be found in the lush, raw Tejera Negra nature reserve, where summers are mild bordering on cool, and winters are harsh with up to two or three months of snow.
Close to the town of Cantalojas and in the heart of the Ayllón massif, with shallow, rocky streams, mossy roots and a carpet of leaves, abysses that give you vertigo to behold, and a blanket of white between about Christmas and February, the Tejera Negra nature reserve is a Mecca for walkers – those seeking an easy-ish stroll through wooded, mountainous landscape, and very fit, experienced hikers are all catered for – with organised, guided excursions programmed most of the year.
As it's a protected reserve, you have to book a ticket to enter, but this means the area is very geared up to visitors and you'll find accommodation within convenient reach and scheduled trips on offer to ensure you don't miss out on any of its highlights.
Related Topics
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